RE: installing rpms and being root

[bill helke cp Novartis com]

Yes, I have seen that error as well and assumed that gnorpm would not update
the rpm database properly due to authentication failure, so I've just
avoided using it altogether and work from the command line as root.

A tip for others (Telsa's probably already done this ;-) ):

You should consider setting your bashrc for user root to make the text or
background of your terminal ugly red or some other such thing to make the
"root" environment very apparent automatically whenever you log in to a
terminal as root (assuming you are using bash).  This is described the
Config-HOWTO on LDP.  

William F. Helke

-----Original Message-----
From: Telsa Gwynne [mailto:hobbit@aloss.ukuu.org.uk]
Sent: Friday, January 21, 2000 1:26 PM
To: gnome-list@gnome.org
Subject: Re: installing rpms and being root


On Fri, Jan 21, 2000 at 07:06:56PM +0100 or thereabouts,
bill.helke@cp.Novartis.com wrote:
> But there's one thing that has always scared me about using GnoRPM to do
> installs/upgrades - you have to be root to use it.  And also logged in to
X.
> Root logged into X using an X-based tool to edit your system?  Now that's
> scary!

Oh, yes. Good point. I do it slightly differently, so I hadn't thought 
of that angle.

I'm never usually logged in as root. I run X (and hence Gnome) from
my user account. When I want to do rootish things, I start a terminal
with a different coloured background and type 'su' in the terminal.

    [hobbit@aloss ~]$ su
    Password:
    [root@aloss /home/hobbit]# gnorpm

    GnomeUI-WARNING **: While connecting to session manager:
    Authentication Rejected, reason : None of the authentication protocols
    specified are supported and host-based authentication failed.

I'm not sure what GnomeUI is burbling about, but GnoRPM started,
and I uninstalled a package to make sure. I appear to have lost
color-yahtzee entirely successfully. 

Actually, if someone could explain what it -is- burbling about,
I'd be very grateful :) I would assume it's saying that the
session manager didn't like something. 

I use this procedure for linuxconf, mount, and other root-only things 
too. I have the sudo rpms knocking around; I really should install those 
and do it 'properly'. But having root stuff in one terminal with a
different background and title reminds me not to hit return too hastily.

I used to colour-code windows by what machine each window had an ssh
running to, but that got too confusing :)

Telsa


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